My favorite metaphor for leadership is that of an orchestra conductor. Quite often, the conductor is someone who used to play a particular instrument in the orchestra, but now his or her job is to get the most beautiful sound out of the entire group. They do this by understanding the function of each section […]
Are you leading a new start-up? Were you just finding your footing as soon as COVID-19 hit? Do you find yourself struggling to balance the books as the pandemic carries on? If the answers to any of those questions were yes, then first, I would just like to say welcome to entrepreneurship. If you had […]
A lot of people write books to burnish—or build—reputations, often with one eye on post-C-suite careers, whether as consultants, motivational speakers, authors, or all of these. While I may now be one of those ‘published authors,’ I can’t say I was entirely open to the idea at first. It may sound a bit counterintuitive but […]
If you’re starting (or restarting) a company or team, I can’t overstate the value of those first twenty to twenty-five hires that will make up the future of your organization and define its success. You can’t even get to the goal of leading and growing a company without a core group of people who are […]
I did my first start-up, Waveset Technologies, in 2000—the heady days just before the dot-com bubble burst. Back then, the Herman Miller Aeron chair was the hot item in offices. It cost well upward of $1,000, and every Silicon Valley start-up decided it had to have one—for every employee. But the Aeron was not for […]
In my early days as an entrepreneur the upward trend of shared recreational spaces was just taking hold. In my world, at a company founded prior to SailPoint, it started with a pool table. I saw that seemingly common object bring together employees and create some really fond memories on our overall business journey. Many […]
If products are meant to address pains that those working in a given market or discipline face, is there a way to rank that pain? A scale—better yet, a test—of urgency? There is indeed, and using it effectively is often the difference between products that people want and those that languish. If you’re creating a […]
Doom, gloom, and a global pandemic—these are the themes driving us into the roaring (whimpering?) twenties. It isn’t exactly what we expected, but if there is anything I’ve learned in my many years as an entrepreneur, it’s that moments of uncertainty can breed some of the most interesting and inspiring ideas. At the same time, […]
If you think you have a great idea for a business, be advised: the ground you must cover in getting from idea to business is steep, demanding, and—nine times out of ten—near impossible to traverse. Here’s why: An idea on its own is never a business. It’s an idea, nothing more. Let’s say you take […]
When breaking ground on a new company, management experts and consultants always espouse mission, vision, and values—in that order—as the keys to a successful launch. But how is vision possible without strong values that motivate you and the people around you? Based on what I’ve seen, it’s far more important that your values are deep […]
This assessment aims to differentiate between flashy “pseudo-cultures” that attract talent and investors from the real cultures that actually put people first and develop meaningful products.
Take the assessment